School had just started back and Dil was as usual having trouble fitting in.
"Yo Dil,You make contact with the aliens yet?" A boy named Josh asked as he took his seat next to Dil while laughing.
Dil sighed before answereing"I told you yesterday Josh. I haven't made contact yet." Dil was getting frustrated. He had been trying to contact the aliens since fourth grade. He was in eighth grade now. Why were they staying silent?
When Dil got home he went staight to his room. He turned on his laptop. He looked up alien encounters and then saw some other posts people encountering ghosts. THere were even recordings of the ghosts voices on tape.
"That's it." Dil cried falling off his chair."If I can't contact aliens then maybe I can contact ghosts." He used his allowence to buy an EM F meter to detect energy,digital audio recorder so he could capture the ghosts saying something,and finally a ghost box so the ghost could comunicate through white noise. A few weeks later when he had more money he bought a motion detector and an infered wireless camera.
It was now early October and Dil had Phil drive him,Tommy,Chuckie,Zack and Kai to the cemetery. He he had just got his permit a few months ago. So his parents bought him a blue jeep.
"Ok Dil the cameras all set." Tommy said.
"The alarm too." Zack said stepping back fromthe fence that lead into the graveyard.
"What are we even doing here?" Chuckie asked shivering."You know graveyards make me nervous."
"We're here so I can talk to some ghosts." Dil announced.
"What happened to talking to aliens?" Kai asked.
"They stayed silent." Dil answered.
The sun was just started to set as Phil lit up a cigarette.
"Since when did you start smoking?" Tommy asked.
"Oh uh just now." Phil answered jumping and nearly dropping the cigarette."You guys want one?"
Tommy,Dil,and Kai stepped forward. Phil held the package out to them. They each took one.
"You guys want one?" Phil asked Chuckie and Zack.
"no thanks." Chuckie answered shaking his head and backing away.
"Yeah I think I'll pass." Zack said. Phil put the package back in his jacket pocket. He lit the other boys cigarettes and they took a puff and immediatly started coughing. THey tried again once they were done coughing.
"Where'd you get these anyway?" Kai asked Phil as held the cigarette in his fingers.
"Some dude gave them to me for helping get an A in home ec class." Phil explained."That guy didn't know a whisk from a spatula."
It was now dark and the boys sat among the headstones smoking and telling stories. Phil and Kai decided to explore the cemetery some more. They used the flashlights on their phones and walked toward the back where there was supposedly an Indian berial ground. They soon heard growling.
"What was that?" Kai asked.
"I don't know but it doesn't spund like anything I've ever heard." Phil whispsered as they heard the grow;ing again. It was coming closer. They ran back to their friends not even stopping. They juust yelled for them to hurry up. In the jeep they explained what they heard.
"Ok let's check the footage." Dil said excitedly once they were all safe in Phil's house plugging in the usb to Phil's laptop.
In Lil's room
Kimi and Kya were staying the night at Lil's house. Kimi and Lil were currently talking about boys they had a crush on. Kya was trying to finish math homework.
She sighed for the tenth time in an hour.
"What's wrong?" Lil asked.
"This stupid math homework. I just don't get it." Kya said slamming the book shut and standing up."I gotta make a video call." Once Kya's pink laptop was turned on she made the video to her best friend Tala in the Philippines. They spoke fro a little while and Tala explained everything to Kya and she was able to get her homework done.
"What was all that about?" Lil asked.
"Oh Tala helped me finish my homework." Kya explained."And she's coming to spend Christmas with us."
"Oh cool." Lil said sitting on her bed.
"Why are you even doing homework on a saturday?" Kimi asked.
"Because I don't get math and I'm afraid I might fail the class." Kya said flopping on her back next to Lil.
"So what if you fail a class." kimi said."You don't want to be a nerd like Chuckie,do you?"
"No but I still don't want to fail and get grounded for a month like Kai did last year when he failed English cuz he was to busy with soccer. Mom said he couldn't play anymore if he didn't bring his grade up." Kya explained.
Back in Phil's room
They all sat around Phil's laptop on the floor and watched the video. It was dark so you couldn't seeanything but almost right away you heard a woman scream as the five boys entered through the rusted iron gate. Dil paused the video.
"Ok nobody heard that scream when we were there right?" He asked as everybody shook their heads no.
"It's probably just a frog." Tommy said shrugging off the very human sounding scream.
"That didn't sound like any frog I ever heard." Chuckie shuddered.
"I have to agree with Chuckie as much as I don't believe in ghosts,that sounded like a lady screaming and their were no women around." Zack said.
"Ok let's just see if there's anything else." Phil said impatiantly.
They started the video again and as they watched they heard Tommy say it's right there Dil and as soon as Tommy finished his sentence they all heard someone say right here. It was almost in a whisper but they all clearly heard it on the video.
"Ok this is getting freaky." Phil exclaimed.
"This is awesome." Dil cried."We have actualy ghots voices."
The video didn't capture the uneplained growling noise that Kai and Phil heard toward the back of the cemtery. The video ended with all of them running to Phil's jeep.
"Ok I am officially freaked out." Chuckie stated.
"I'm sure there's a logical explenation for all this." Zack reasoned.
"How do you explain all those noises that we didn't hear with our own ears?" Phil yelled.
"And that growling we heard?" Kai asked.
"Might I point out that you two are the only ones who heard it." Zack pointed at Phil and Kai."You probably smoked to much and imagined the whole thing."
"What's all the noise about?" Lil asked barging into Phil's room scaring all five boys.
Dil told them the whole story,leaving out the smoking part. The girls watched the video and were just freaked out as the boys.
Betty came into the room to see what all the noise was about and to collect Phil and Lil's dirty clothes. Dil quickly closed the laptop so the adults wouldn't know about them going to the cemetery.
"We were just watching some scary videos." Phil said rubbing the back of his neck nervously.
"Ok well don't stay up to late and don't make to much noise. Your father has a doctors appointment tomorrow." Betty said taking the basket of dirty clothes downstairs to be washed.
As Betty was sorting the clothes she noticed the empty pack of cigarrets lying in the middle of the clothes basket. She picked up the package and marched upstairs.
The girls had gone back to Lil's room and the boys were now playing a video game.
"Kids get out here." Betty doors opened and all eight teenagers came out and lined up against the wall.
"Anyone care to explain this?" Betty asked in a calm voice. Phil looked nervous. Chuckie was shaking beside him and Tommy,Dil,and Kai looked scared. Zack was the only one out of the boys that looked calm,after all he wasn't one of the ones that smoked.
Betty noticed the boys nervous looks and said."Girls you are excused." the girls silently went back to Lil's room but kept the door open slightly so they could hear what was going on.
Betty walked back and forth holding the empty carton in front of each boys face. When she got to Chuckie he squeaked in fear and cried.
"It wasn't me." He ran outside and got in his car and left for home.
Betty syopped pacing after Chuckie ran off and stared at the four remaning boys in the hallway.
"Nobody leaves this hallway until I get an answer." She said firmly placing her hands on her hips. The boys slowly raised their hands one by one saying it was me and me.
The girls could hear everything from inside the room.
"Busted." Lil whispered loudly.
"You boys go sit in the living room and wait for your parents." Betty ordered. The boys slowly marched downstairs and sat on the couch as they heard Betty call their parents and Zack's aunt because Phil wasn't allowed to have to have friends over at the moment.
Stu was the first to arrive to puck up Tommy and Dil.
"What were you boys thinking?" Stu asked as he walked his boys to the front door.
"Phil offered us one." Dil commented not really thinking about the gravity of the situation he just caused. Zack was the next to leave. Phil and Kai sat quietly on the couch.
"Want to watch tv?" Phil asked grabbing the remote off the coffee table only for Betty to snatch it away.
"No tv,video games or soccer for you for a month." Betty snapped. She sat down on the couch and in a more calm tone asked."Where did you even get the cigarettes?"
Phil sighed before answering."I helped a guy get an A in home ec and that's how he repaid me."
"You didn't have to smoke." Betty said sadly."You know your grandpa died from lung cancer because he smoked."
"I didn't know that." Phil said softly.
They heard a knock on the door and saw it was Kai's uncle. Betty went to answer the door.
"Bring all the boys to my house tomorrow. I have a plan so that they'll never want to smoke again." Ernesto informed her and then whipsered to her what his plan was and she agreed. She didn't like it much and she knew Didi wouldn't either but if it would keep the boys from smoking again she would allow it.
The next day Tommy,Dil,,Phil,and Kai all went outside to the backyard where Ernesto handed thema pack of cugarettes each.
"What's this for?" Tommy asked.
"You're going to smoke the whole pack and then maybe you'll think twice about smoking ever again." Ernesto explained.
"Can we stop now?" Phil asked as he had already smoked half the pack.
"Keep going." Ernesto said.
The boys reluctantly did as they were told.
"I'm never smoking again." Kai groaned.
"Me either." Tommy agreed.
"My hwad hurts." Phil said rubbing his head.
"I think I'll stick to talking to ghosts." Dil said.
Thanks to Celrock for the title of this story. Zack belongs to Celrock. The idea for the kids ro smoke a whole pack was from king of the hill.